In 2021, From the Top featured Julia LaGrand, a 16-year-old violinist who spoke candidly about being a musician who is also blind. Julia’s experience on From the Top got her thinking about artistry and disability. She wrote a passionate email: would From the Top do more? The answer was yes.
Julia has become a critical team member at From the Top. As advisor, co-host and associate producer, Julia is central to our work in supporting and elevating the experiences of musicians with disabilities.
In 2023, Julia co-hosted our first Musicians with Disability broadcast, was profiled by The Boston Globe, and moderated an online panel discussion entitled Disability and Classical Music Today with partners at Access/VSA.
This year, with Julia at the helm again, we convened young musicians in Boston to record a new Musicians with Disability broadcast, produced a panel and performance event with Boston arts and disability leaders at GBH, and captured the entire process with a documentary film team from Vanishing Angle
Meet Julia LaGrand, Co-Host and Content Advisor
Panel and Performance Event | Watch the Recording
Julia LaGrand facilitated a free performance and panel discussion centered around empowering disabled artists now and in the future with panelists Ciara Moser, Christopher Robinson, Ellice Patterson, and Adrian Anantawan. Performances by violist Nicolette Sullivan-Cozza, cellist Adam Mandela Walden, and FTT host Peter Dugan.
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Access/VSA, A Jean Kennedy Smith Arts and Disability Program
Berklee College of Music
GBH
Think Outside the Vox
THANK YOU TO THE GENEROSITY OF:
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation
The Volgenau Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Mass Cultural Council
The Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation
& the many individuals who support From the Top
